Technical Field
This disclosure relates to electronic systems and, in particular, to cascode circuits.
Description of Related Technology
Power amplifiers can be included in wireless communication devices to amplify a radio frequency (RF) signal for transmission via an antenna. RF signals can be in a frequency range from about 30 kHz to 300 GHz. Certain power amplifiers can operate in multiple modes of operation. For example, different modes of operation can be associated with different power modes. There are a number of design tradeoffs associated with efficiently operating in each of the multiple modes of operation while also achieving a desired level of performance in each of the multiple modes of operation.
Some multi-mode power amplifiers include RF signal paths associated with different modes of operation. One or more selected RF signal paths can be switched ‘in’ or switched ‘out’ in a particular mode of operation. Certain switch elements that are relatively low-loss and have relatively low-distortion can be expensive to implement and may not be easily implemented on the same die as the power amplifier.